INDEPENDENT PANEL ‘TOTALLY’ EXONERATES CHAO

Three independent doctors have unanimously ruled the Chargers’ doctor is “totally exonerated” from a player union protest he is unfit to serve in his current role, a club source said Saturday.

The NFL Players Association formally requested a review of Dr. David Chao’s qualifications in Feb. 2012, the source said. The union publicly expressed its dissatisfaction Jan. 31 when multiple NFLPA executives insinuated Chao should be replaced.

“It seems to me that the players of the National Football League deserve to have a doctor who’s not been found liable of malpractice,” said DeMaurice Smith, the union’s executive director, in a New Orleans news conference.

As decided in the league’s collective bargaining agreement, the Joint Committee of Player Safety and Welfare oversees any NFLPA complaint that a team’s medical care is not properly managing player safety.

Independent doctors found there was no basis in the complaint.

A call to Chao went unreturned and an email to him was not answered Saturday night.

AN NFLPA spokesman said he would have no comment at this time.

MICHAEL GEHLKEN

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Golf

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Baseball

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